by: Dr. Aradhana Mudambi

Back in 2009, I invited my Mexican-descent colleague from the Rio Grande Valley to join me in visiting my grandparents out in Albany, NY. My aunt, uncle, grandmother, sister, friend, and I gathered in the living room, and like in most busy social settings, there were multiple conversations happening simultaneously. But unlike in most US settings, these conversations took place in multiple languages. I spoke to my friend in Spanish while my uncle and grandmother conversed in Kannada. I then turned to my uncle and spoke to him in English. Then, my grandmother and I engaged in a conversation in Tamil while my sister, friend, and uncle spoke in English. Then, my uncle translated part of his conversation with my friend to Kannada for my grandmother (only because she hadn’t been listening to their conversation, and he thought she would be interested), and my grandmother replied to my friend in English. 

It’s certainly not unusual to have multiple conversations going on when families get together. I thought nothing of it. But I was forced to reflect on our gatherings when my friend turned to me and whispered, “Todos hablan en idiomas diferentes y a nadie le importa.” (Everybody speaks in different languages and nobody cares.) For a second, I was taken back by the observation and then, suddenly understood. In the United States, many are under the misconception that speaking in languages other than in English is rude when not everybody speaks the Language Other Than English (LOTE). 

In my family, nobody finds speaking a LOTE rude just because somebody else does not understand it. My uncle by marriage does not speak our home language of Tamil. He speaks Kannada, Konkani, and English. Although my grandmother could have managed in English, she was not the happiest when speaking it. She much preferred Tamil, Kannada, or Hindi. My sister and I don’t speak Kannada although we both speak Tamil and English. My friend and I were used to speaking in Spanish with one another because we had met as bilingual teachers although we both also speak English. Therefore, the only common language among us was English. Yet, we didn’t choose the least common denominator. We each chose the language that felt most comfortable depending upon the conversation.

In the United States, people fear that if others are speaking in a language that they do not understand, that they are talking about them. I’m not about to say that that is never the case. But those same people will likely find another time to talk about you if that is their wish. However, in general, people just speak the language that brings them the most comfort in a given setting. However, by stopping people (especially children) from speaking one of their LOTEs  just because there are monolingual English speakers present, we are sending the wrong message.  We are stating that we must cater to the most linguistically privileged members of society (monolingual English speakers). We are stating that there is something inherently wrong with speaking one’s home language. And we are stating that English holds a higher status than the other 7000 global languages. 

If we want our children to become multilingual (which we should), we need to think about what message we are sending. As we consider the new year, let’s ensure that we make it okay for students to speak in their home languages in the hallways. Let us commit to celebrating the linguistic diversity we hear when multiple languages are spoken. Let us remember to praise our students for not letting go of their home languages and/or for adding new languages to their linguistic repertoires. Perhaps if we are intentional about this, we can finally catch up to the rest of the world where using multiple languages is the norm.

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